Cheatsheet
Baby Steps
h
move cursor to the leftj
move downk
move upl
move righti
Go into Insert mode<ESC>
<C-C>
<C-[>
Go back to Normal mode
Move Fast Word by Word
w
move to the beginning of next wordb
move to the beginning of the previous worde
move to the end of the next wordge
move to the end of the previous wordW
move to the beginning of next WORDB
move to the beginning of the previous WORDE
move to the end of the next WORDgE
move to the end of the previous WORD
Find Character
f{character}
Find next occurrence of characterF{character}
Find previous occurrence of charactert{character}
Find next occurrence of character and place cursor just before itT{character}
Find previous occurrence of character and place cursor just before it;
Go to next occurrence of {character},
Go to previous occurrence of {character}
Move Extremely Horizontally
0
Moves to the first character of a line^
Moves to the first non-blank character of a line$
Moves to the end of a lineg_
Moves to the non-blank character at the end of a line
Move Faster Vertically
}
Jumps entire paragraphs downwards{
similarly but upwardsCTRL-D
lets you move down half a page by scrolling the pageCTRL-U
lets you move up half a page also by scrolling
High Precision Vertical Motions with Search
/{pattern}
Search for {pattern}. {pattern} is a regex.?{pattern}
Search for {pattern} backwards./
Repeat last search forwards?
Repeat last search backwardsn
Go to next matchN
Go to previous match
Move Faster with Counts
{count}{motion}
Repeat {motion} {count} times2w
Jump to second word4f"
Jump to fourth occurrence of the " character3/cucumber
Jump to third match of "cucumber"
Move Semantically
gd
Go to definition (of the word under the cursor)gf
Go to file (for file under the cursor)
More Nifty Core Motions
gg
Go to the top of the file{line}gg
Go to {line}G
Go to the end of the file%
jump to matching ({[]})
Edit Like Magic With Vim Operators
{operator}{count}{motion}
Apply operator on bit of text covered by motiond
deletec
changey
yank (copy)p
p (paste)g~
switch case>
shift right<
shift left=
format
Linewise Operators
dd
delete a linecc
change a lineyy
yank (copy) a lineg~~
switch case of a line>>
shift line right<<
shift lineleft==
format line
Capital case (Stronger version) Operators
D
delete from cursor to the end of the lineC
change from cursor to the end of the lineY
yank (copy) a line. Like yyP
put (paste) before the cursor
Text objects
{operator}a{text-object}
Apply operator to all text-object including trailing whitespace{operator}i{text-object}
Apply operator inside text-objectdiw
delete inner worddaw
delete a worddis
delete inner sentencedas
delete a sentencedip
delete inner paragraphdap
delete a paragraphdi(
dib
delete inside parenthesesda(
dab
delete text inside parentheses (including parentheses)di{
diB
delete inside bracesda{
daB
delete text inside braces (including braces)di[
delete inside bracketsda[
delete text inside brackets (including brackets)di"
delete inside quotesda"
delete a quoted text (including quotes)dit
delete inside tagdat
delete a tag (including tag)ciw
same goes for other operators...
Repeat Last Change
.
Repeat the last change
Character Editing Commands
x
delete a character. Like dlX
delete character before the cursor. Like dhs
change a character. Like cl~
switch case of a character
Undo and redo
u
undo last changeC-R
redo last undo{count}u
undo last {count} changes
Inserting Text
i
go into insert mode before the cursora
go into insert mode after the cursorI
go into insert mode at the beginning of a lineA
go into insert mode at the end of a lineo
insert new line below current line and go into insert modeO
insert new line above current line and go into insert modegi
go to the last place you left insert modeC-H
delete last characterC-W
delete last wordC-U
delete last line
Visual Mode
v
go into character-wise visual modeV
go into line-wise visual modeC-V
go into block-wise visual mode (to select rectangular blocks of text){trigger visual mode}{motion}{operator}
Visual mode operates in kind of the opposite way to normal mode. First you specify the motion to select text, and then you apply the operator
Operate on Next Search Match
{operator}gn
Apply operator on next match.
After using {op}gn, the dot commant repeats the last change on the next match. Woooot!
Copying and pasting
y{motion}
yank (copy) text covered by motionp
put (paste) after cursorP
paste before cursoryy
copy lineY
copy lineyyp
duplicate lineddp
swap linesxp
swap characters"ay{motion}
copy to register a"Ay{motion}
copy and append to register a"ap
paste from register a"
unnamed register0
yank register1-9
delete registers[a-z]
named registersC-R a
paste from register a when in Insert mode
Command-line mode
:edit {file}
:e {file}
create or edit file:write
:w
save file:quit
:q
close file:write!
:w!
force save file:quit!
:q!
close file without saving:wq
save and close file:wall
:wa
save all files:qall
:qa
close all files:wqall
:wqa
save and close all files:qall!
:qa!
close all files without saving:[range]delete [register]
:[r]d [r]
delete multiple lines into register@:
repeat last ex command@@
after repeating it once, you can continue repeating with this
Command-line mode Ranges
:{start},{end}
start and end lines of range e.g. :1,2d:{start},{offset}
start and offset lines of range e.g. :1,+2d.
current line e.g. :.,+2d%
whole file e.g. :%d0
beginning of file e.g. :0,10d$
end of file e.g. :10,$d:'<,'>
visual selection
Command-line mode Substitute
:[range]/{pattern}/{substitute}/[flags]
substitute matched pattern for string literal in given rangeg flag
substitute all matches in a linei flag
case insensitive searchc flag
confirm substitution for each match
Split Windows
:sp {file}
Open file in a horizontal split:vsp {file}
Open file in a vertical splitC-W S
Open same file in a horizontal splitC-W V
Open same file in a vertical splitC-W h
Move to split to the leftC-W j
Move to split belowC-W k
Move to split aboveC-W l
Move to split to the right
Tabs
:tabnew {file}
Open file in new tab:tabnext
:tabn
Jump to next tab:tabprev
:tabp
Jump to previous tab:tabonly
:tabo
Close all other tabs
Vim surround
ds
delete surroundings e.g. ds"cs
change surroundings e.g. cs*tem>ys
add surroundings e.g. ysiw"ds"
delete surrounding quotescs*tem>
change surrounding * for the <em> tagysiw"
surround word under the cursor with quotesS
In visual mode you can select some text, then type S to add surroundings. e.g. Stp> to wrap the selection in a <p> tag
Custom mappings (they need to be added to your config)
jk
Go back to normal modeJ
Go down fasterK
Go up faster<leader>j
Join lines<leader>/
Clear highlighted text<leader>w
Save file<leader>p
Open command palette<leader>t
Go to symbol in file<C-H>
Move to the window on the left<C-J>
Move to the window below<C-K>
Move to the window above<C-L>
Move to the window on the right<leader>tt
Create new tab<leader>tn
Move to next tab<leader>tp
Move to previous tab<leader>to
Close all tabs but the current one
Insert mode
Normal mode
Moving Faster with Vim-sneak
s{char}{char}
Jump to the next ocurrence of {char}{char}S{char}{char}
Jump to the previous ocurrence of {char}{char};
Go to next occurrence of {char}{char},
Go to previous occurrence of {char}{char}{op}z{char}{char}
Apply operator on text traversed by vim sneak motion
Moving Faster with Easymotion
<leader><leader>w
start of words<leader><leader>b
start of words backwards<leader><leader>bdw
start of words everywhere. The bd stands for bidirectional<leader><leader>e
end of words<leader><leader>ge
end of words backwards<leader><leader>bdw
end of words everywhere<leader><leader>j
beginning of lines<leader><leader>k
beginning of lines backwards<leader><leader>f{char}
find character<leader><leader>F{char}
find character backwards<leader><leader>t{char}
until character<leader><leader>T{char}
until character backwards<leader><leader>s{char}
search character everywhere
Multiple Cursors
<CMD-D>
<C-D>
gb
Adds an additional cursor. This command puts you in visual mode. In effect, it selects all the words under each new cursor at once.{operator}
Applies operator on words selected by the multiple cursors.I
Insert before multiple words at the same timeA
Append after multiple words at the same time<C-V>
Go into Visual-block mode and select text using motions{operator}
Applies operator on visual selection.I
Insert before visual selectionA
Append after visual selection
Based on Search
In Consecutive Rows
Reusable Editing with Macros
q{register}
Start recording a new macro in {register}q
Stop recording macro@{register}
Replay macro in {register}@@
Replay the last macro that you executed
Integrating with Neovim
:[range]copy {address}
Copy lines after {address} line:[range]move {address}
Move lines after {address} line:[range]normal {commands}
Apply normal mode commands on a range of lines:execute "{ex-command}"
Execute string as an Ex command. Useful in combination with normal when the normal mode commands include special characters.:[range]global/{pattern}/{command}
Execute an Ex command on lines within a range that match a pattern. The default range is the whole file. Really useful in combination with the normal command.:[range]global!/{pattern}/{command}
Execute an Ex command on lines within a range that do not match a pattern.
Some Handy VSCode Only Mappings
af
Select increasingly bigger blocks of textgh
Equivalent to hovering the mouse over a bit of text.
Bonus 01: Entire and Arguments Text Objects
dae
Delete complete bufferyae
Yank complete buffercia
Change function argumentdaa
Delete function argument including separator